We all know legal representation can be expensive. So maybe a you-scratch-my-back, I-defend-yours isn't the worst idea in the world. Unless you're DeKalb attorney Scott Robert Erwin, who accepted client payment in the form of nude dancing. Would you believe that's not cool with the Illinois Attorney Registration and Disciplinary Commission? Erwin has been suspended from practicing law for 15 months. Erwin and his former client met in 2001, when he went to tittybar Heartbreakers......

Before local dentist Max Feinberg died, he put in his will that he would disinherit any heirs who married gentiles. Or as the Wall Street Journal oh-so-tactfully puts it, "Marry Goyim, You Get Bupkis." Now an Illinois appeals court has essentially revoked that clause from Feinberg's will, saying it "seriously interferes with and limits the right of individuals to marry a person of their own choosing." [WSJ, Trib]......

Governor Rod Balgojevich will more than likely perform an amendatory veto on legislation regarding allowing hearsay in first-degree murder trials. According to the Trib, the bill, "would allow a judge to decide at a pretrial hearing whether hearsay testimony could be admitted into court if the prosecution could prove that the defendant made the witness disappear." The current incarnation of the bill, which passed both the state House and Senate, currently does not include an......

Today, a federal jury convicted Fernando King, the "chief operating officer" of the Chicago Latin Kings street gang, of drug conspiracy and attempted cocaine distribution. King, also referred to as the "supreme Inca," is the reputed number two in the Latin King chain of command. King has been in custody since December 2006 and is scheduled to be sentenced December 3. He faces a minimum of 20 years in prison. The jury caused a bit......

We've always wondered how we could get out of jury duty if ever called [Ed note: What?! I want to be on a jury so badly! What up, civic duty?], and some members of the Kelly jury pool have given us some great examples this week. One woman was dismissed for singing high praises of Kelly, calling him a "musical genius." When asked to say something negative about him, she reluctantly brought up his feud......

WBEZ joined the Trib, Sun-Times and Associated Press today in filing a petition to unseal R. Kelly's court proceedings. Kelly's trial is scheduled to start May 9, a mere six years after charges that he videotaped himself having sex with underage girls were filed against him. The petition was filed in Illinois Supreme Court to overturn decisions from Cook County Circuit Court Judge Vincent M. Gaughan, who has kept all filings and records of meetings......

Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick is the latest politician to find himself waist-high in a sex scandal, this one involving perjury, obstruction of justice, over 14,000 text messages, and one big deal Chicago lawyer. Kilpatrick has hired former US Attorney Daniel Webb, who has some experience representing elected officials. He recently represented George Ryan (can't win 'em all), and has been ranked the "No. 1 white-collar criminal defense attorney" by Corporate Crime Reporter. Webb has his......

With the special election for Dennis Hastert's vacant 14th Congessional District seat coming up next Saturday, the race has heated up. Democrat Bill Foster has hit Jim Oberweis almost daily, pointing out the differences on Social Security, global trade, and the war in Iraq. Oberweis has fought back, calling Foster a liberal and a liar, and charging that he will raise taxes. The close race got even more interesting this week when Foster released recent......

Last week, it was announced that one of the U of C Law School’s biggest superstars, Cass Sunstein, will be leaving for Harvard in the fall. Sunstein attended Harvard as an undergrad and for law school, and he later clerked for Justice Thurgood Marshall. He’s been on faculty at the U of C for 27 years, and during that time he has written and edited at least a dozen books. Now, he's going to Harvard......

The Illinois High School Association is coming under fire from the media this week with a story in the Reader and an editorial in the Trib about the organization's recent decision to ban photographers from high school sporting events unless they sign a document promising not to sell their photos. Yikes. The IHSA has a contract with VIP, a Wisconsin-based photography firm that takes photos at high school sporting events and sells them to athletes......

Understatement of the day: being in prison is no fun (at least it doesn’t look like it on Lock-Up). Even less fun is rotting away in a cell for almost 26 years for a crime you didn’t commit. Now imagine that the key to your freedom was sitting the entire time locked in a box in a lawyer’s office, who couldn’t reveal it due to attorney-client privilege. That’s exactly what happened to Alton Logan. Logan,......

The clock is winding down for drinkers who enjoy a cigarette with their booze. The Smoke-Free Illinois Act is set to go into effect at midnight on Jan. 1, 2008. Illinois will officially join the list of states that have banned smoking in almost all indoor spaces. Besides bars, Illinoisans will not be allowed to smoke in such cigarette bastions as factory floors, stadiums, casinos, and prisons. However, Chicago residents shouldn't expect John Q. Law......

The thousands of Chicagoans who have received citations for refusing to wear an ugly head set while driving may feel a bit at ease today. The Law Offices of Blake Horwitz is filing a class action lawsuit against the city, Mayor Daley, and several police officers for illegally ticketing thousands of drivers in violation of the cell phone ban since its inception over two years ago. Apparently, the law required the city to post signs......

Corruption in Chicago has evolved, according to federal hiring monitor Noelle Brennan. According to the annual report Brennan released yesterday, blatant abuses and manipulation of the hiring system in the city is no longer a problem. But patronage has moved to "more subtle types of manipulations of the hiring process." Brennan has been the hiring monitor since August of 2005, when federal prosecutors uncovered a fraudulent hiring scheme that led to Daley's former patronage chief......

In high school one of the constants of our Friday nights was a family-sized pizza delivered to the house from La Villa Restaurant and Banquets in Old Irving. We'd fight for a corner slice among our allotment, chase them down with a glass of pop, and head out the house for our other constant: vainly working on our game with every Catholic school girl we could meet. Those pizzas from La Villa, still among the......

Chicagoist has been known to wax philosophic when it comes to websites that make dining out and ordering in easier. We've written about two of our favorites, MenuPages and GrubHub, here and here, respectively. There's a new kid in town, and her name is FoodieBytes. We can already feel MenuPages and GrubHub shaking in their internet boots. The premise of FoodieBytes is pretty simple; put an ingredient or dish in which you are interested into......

The Holiday season is in full swing in NYC, with holiday lights in Brooklyn, a giant snow globe in Bryan Park and Chanukah specials for ham. One citizen decided to go vigilante on annoying car alarms, a murder suspect used a fake Asian accent on the stand and a video of a man being beaten up by teenage girls on a subway shocked the city. And we interviewed soon-to-be-leaving-Gawker editor Choire Sicha, who said,......

"Law enforcement officials at all levels, from the detectives who investigate cases to the superintendent, as well as the state's attorney's office, have failed to properly police the police." Wow. The Trib goes all out today with a massive story about police shootings, and it's extremely critical of the CPD. According to the story, "More than 100 people have been killed in the last decade; 250 others have been injured. But only a tiny......

Chicagoist's brother-in-law is a man of many excesses, most of which revolve around pork products. And while we aren't quite the connoisseur that he is, it's no big secret that Chicagoist loves bacon. So what's so great about Milk & Honey's BLT? How about this — everything. The bread is perfectly toasted Italian bread that gives a satisfying crunch while maintaining its inner softness. The bacon is neither a greasy slab of fat nor......

Brewer Larry Bell...

Alderman Howard Brookins Jr. of the 21st ward was hit with a lawsuit this week that claims he owes $41,819.18 in back rent for the Loop offices of his law practice. Brookins didn't know about the suit until the Sun-Times contacted him. Sounds like a fun phone call: S-T: Hi, this is a reporter from the Sun-Times. Brookins: [dryly] Grand. S-T: I'm calling about the lawsuit. Brookins: The what? S-T: The lawsuit? That your office......

What's the Speed Limit?...

Long-time Republican Congressman Henry Hyde died early this morning at Rush University Medical Center. He was 83. Hyde served 32 years in the House before retiring at the end of last session, and he was recently awarded a Medal of Freedom. He's best known for his role as the chairman of the judiciary committee during the Clinton impeachment proceedings and for the Hyde Amendment, which bans Medicaid from funding abortions except in cases of rape,......

Oprah’s 2007 Favorite Things show was last week. We thought since Oprah is deciding who our next president is going to be, we should catch yesterday's “Making Of” show, so we won’t be caught unawares when chocolate-covered-yogurt-soy-smoothies become national law. Yesterday's show was reasonably interesting. They went to Macon, Ga., for the taping, because Oprah's highest ratings are in Macon; 45% of the people in Macon watch Oprah. 45% of the people! Judging by this......

This week has been all about finding a good turkey, ordering that dinner to go, or cooking at home. But Chicago's intrepid food bloggers were still all over the place this week. Bridget Houlihan and Tammy "Zesmerelda" Green at Chicago Bites took the time to head to Devon Seafood Grill in the Gold Coast. Both of the ladies enjoyed the meal immensely, but to get the full effect, you should listen to their podcast. Meanwhile,......

Deanna Glass, 14, is still missing. The South Side girl hasn't been seen since Tuesday. Mark your calendars, law makers: Blago has called for a special session on Nov 28 to talk transit funding. Attendance is mandatory! Eh, no it's not, but still. Another bad day for Todd Stroger, this time because his political fund was fined for failing to report all the contributions it received. Remember to buckle up while in Thanksgiving transit.......

The "nation's report card" for public schools came out yesterday, and Chicago ranks behind other urban areas on reading and math for 4th and 8th graders. about 16 percent of the 2,400 4th graders who took the reading exam showed proficiency, compared with an average of 22 percent in cities as a whole. In math, 16 percent of Chicago pupils were proficient, compared with an average of 28 percent in other cities. About 17......

When Mike Madigan and Mayor Daley declined Balgojevich's invitation to meet (again) yesterday to try to work out a deal to fund transit, Rick Harris, president of the Amalgamated Transit Union Local 308, which represents rail workers on the CTA, told the press that "we are about at wits' end." Harris was reacting to the looming "Doomsday 3", as the RTA's labor unions are concerned that a plan to overhaul pension and health care......

Kind of a CPD-heavy day today. University of Chicago Law School professor Craig Futterman released a new study today titled "The Use of Statistical Evidence to Address Police Supervisory and Disciplinary Practices: The Chicago Police Department's Broken System." (Download the .pdf here.) The report is only 40 pages long, and it's un-fucking-believable. In it, Futterman and his co-authors H. Melissa Mather and Melanie Miles outline a blistering analysis of the CPD's "fundamental and systemic" problems,......

A little while ago, we told you about Granny Ball, a basketball league for cougars. Well, attention ladies over 50: There's another round of tryouts tomorrow for the newly formed Granny All-Star League. More than 250 people submitted adoption applications for the 41 horses that survived that truck crash. Wonder where we can see a bunch of local news promos....oh. Right here. Donda West's doctor confirms that she had plastic surgery but denies any......